Some people may not know what off-the-grid or off-grid means, so here it is --- The term off-the-grid or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities.

Off-grid living is no longer a one room log cabin in the woods. It's energy independency. You don't have to rely on utility companies, you create your own power. Today, there are more than 180,000 off-grid homes in the US.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

A Simple Trip To Town...

5:33 pm - 14 degrees - windy...

...isn’t
so simple – especially in the winter time.

When we have a lot of snow, each trip to town has to be planned out. Extra time is needed to unbury, scrape off, and warm up the rig and extra time is needed to slowly (and hopefully safely) make our way down the mountain.

During the winter months, the drive down the curvy mountain road (that’s skirting the edge in numerous areas with no guard rail or anything to stop the rig from going over) can be extremely nerve wracking, especially when you are supposed to be driving straight and all of a sudden your rig slips sideways due to ice or super slushy snow, sliding towards that 100+ foot drop-off. At least there is currently a built-up wall of snow on the edge of the cliff that gives me a small false sense of security.

Besides the nerve wracking drive itself, there is always the very real possibility of getting stuck (it's happened a few times). So when there is snow on the ground (regardless if it’s an inch or a foot), before I ever head out, I always make sure that I have a snow shovel, tire chains, extra food, blankets, snow shoes, and snow gear for everyone in the car. This year I even added a few travel games to help the kids beat the boredom of being stuck. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

This mornings adventure took us just over 2 hours to make the 30 minute drive to school.

The wind was blowing so hard, the snow was blowing back into the road.

Clearing snow drifts on the county road.

Over the past several days it has been very windy causing a lot of snow drifts to form on the road. After last night's 62+ mph wind gusts (all night long and into the morning) Tony jumped in the tractor and slowly started clearing the snow drifts on the county road as we followed behind for a few miles.

Due to the extreme wind, in addition to the big snow drifts, there were also a lot of downed branches and trees.

Some of the smaller trees and branches the kids and I were able to move.

Some were too big for us, but thankfully two wonderful loggers were able to clear the road for us!

Our trip came to another halt with this downed tree that also took some lines with it. But the two wonderful loggers once again showed up and cleared this one also!

When we finally do make it off the mountain and into town, I try to have all my errands done as quickly as possible so I have time to make it
back up the mountain with plenty of daylight to spare; just in case we get
stuck or have to put chains on.

1 comment:

Was introduced to your blog from the blog roll at Not Buying Anything, since going vegan a year ago I'm trying to live a simpler, more environmentally friendly and healthy life. Your life is so far removed from mine here but it looks amazing, who would think going into town (about a ten minute walk for me) could be so interesting and different!

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Welcome

Have you ever dreamed of buying some property somewhere, to live a simpler, more sustainable life? We did, and we were crazy enough to do it.

Our family has chosen to live off-grid. We have purchased 22 acres in the foot hills of the Cascade Mountain Range in the Great Pacific Northwest. Our property is off-grid meaning we have no public utilities whatsoever.

With this blog we will let you know about our experiences in building our home off-grid and how the progress of that is going along with what off-grid living is like for us.
--- Enjoy!